Vision With Action

Left to right: Martin Snedden, Rodney Green, Mike Devonshire (credit Margot Butcher)

By Aiden McLaughlin

Who’d be a sports administrator? In a social media/24-hour news cycle world where so many give their opinion, informed or otherwise, you’re usually on a hiding to nothing. Not enough money, not enough resource, not enough on free-to-air tv, not enough people in the stands, too much money for them, too much resource for that. Why choose that over this, why do they get the funding while the others don’t. Don’t worry about that, do this. Why have you done that, what a waste of money etc etc. It makes my head hurt just thinking about it.

Of course, criticism and questioning are often warranted. But equally, praise is due in many instances, whether it’s directed towards individuals or groups of people.

Earlier this week, I went to the unveiling of some new, world class facilities at the Mitre 10 Sports Park in Hastings, which is now the largest multisport facility in New Zealand; and no, describing them as world class isn’t an exaggeration.

Already a home to hockey, netball, athletics, football, rugby union, rugby league and canoe polo (and I’ve probably missed something), the Mitre 10 Sports Park has already played host to the New Zealand Track & Field Championships, international hockey tournaments and Farah Palmer Cup matches, with their $32 million state of the art aquatic centre hosting the New Zealand Short Course Swimming Championships earlier this month and scheduled to host the long course version in April 2024.

This week it was the turn of cricket and boxing to see their dream facilities turn to reality with the grand opening of the Rodney Green Foundation Indoor Cricket and Boxing Centre, and the Rodney Green Turf Training Facility.

The indoor cricket centre will be Central Districts’ high performance training base, with the squads training there during the day. The four purpose-built training lanes can also be used outside those times by the public who can book and pre-pay for a lane.

The turf facility, inside what can be described as a cricketing greenhouse, is 65m long and 20m wide, has a retractable domed roof and sides which can be rolled up. 16 grass wickets are there and conditions can be adjusted to replicate seaming pitches, ones with pace and carry, or whatever the users desire.

“Both boxing and cricket desperately needed facilities; where they were operating out of, was not fit for purpose. So they got off their chuff and made it happen. They did a lot of fundraising work themselves and they worked people like me pretty hard to make it happen,” said Jock McIntosh, the Chief Executive of the Mitre 10 Sports Park between 2010 and September 2022.

The Chairman of New Zealand Cricket, Martin Snedden, was on hand to aid with ceremonial duties and also talk about the new facilities.

“Jock showed us around the green fields three or four years ago. We brought the board of New Zealand Cricket down here and the guys from Central Districts painted a picture that got us really excited,” said Snedden.

“I think it’s really inspiring. What we were looking at then was really just green paddocks and it sounded a great dream, but to come back in what is a pretty short time later, and just see everything that is here now, and to see the quality of it, I love the sports hub idea. Bringing sports together, feeding off each other and that sort of stuff, it’s great. Central Districts have done a wonderful job twisting the arms that are necessary. They’ve connected with the right people and they then made sure we [New Zealand Cricket] could chip in at the right time,” he said.

The Hastings turf facility is the fourth in New Zealand and there are more to come.

“There’s a quiet little revolution happening here in high-performance cricket in New Zealand where we began with one at Lincoln University. It was very much a trial and error, the high-performance centre there. We tried all sorts of ways over five, six, seven years to see what worked and sealed in on what we thought was a good formula and then invested in Mount Maunganui at Bay Oval and then Wellington College and Central Districts,” Snedden says.

“We’ve got Otago in Dunedin now well advanced and construction on that should start pretty soon and then we’ll have something in Auckland. We’ll end up with seven, maybe eight, and we’ll probably put in somewhere between $10 and $12 million to enable that to happen,” he says.

(Credit Margot Butcher)

“For the likes of Rosemary Mair and Hannah Rowe, the difference now is that for many years, our best female cricketers have had to put up with training and playing facilities that are not as good as the males and that’s not great. Now, what we’re doing is putting them in a place where they can have the same facilities and they will be world-class facilities. It’ll make it so much easier for coaching as coaches have got them in these great facilities, so it all adds up. The theory, is and I think it’s a good theory, is that it will just gradually improve the percentage of our young, talented cricketers, who are able to be developed into really good cricketers, male and female, and therefore better domestic teams and in the end, better White Ferns, better Black Caps.”

The Chairman of the Central Districts Cricket Association, Mike Devonshire, has been instrumental in the new facilities, but has ambitions that go even further.

“We’ve got eight districts [in the Central Districts Association], we’ve got 13,000 players, we’ve got near on 150 clubs and a lot of social clubs as well. There’s a lot of people who play cricket in New Zealand and we’re there for the community, and we’re there for high-performance,” says Devonshire.

“We’re not finished yet. The one piece we’re missing is an international oval and that’s on our vision piece. We’ve been working on that for three years and the action has started,” he says.

So, could McLean Park’s days as a domestic and international cricket venue be numbered? Over to Martin Snedden for the last word.

“I know Mike has a vision of what the next step is, and the next step is an international cricket oval that Central Districts is also able to use as its home base. New Zealand Cricket is really interested in that. We play a lot of international cricket every summer and there’s a lot of domestic cricket played, so I think there’s room, absolutely, for that type of venue, so I wish them all the best.”

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